Vertical farms pick up where big tech faltered

GROW UP

- SAMUEL GILBERT

AT A greenhouse in Mesa, Arizona, 2.7m towers of tomatoes and cucumbers and other assorted vegetables reach skyward, bathed in diffused natural light.

“We can grow 10 times the food using 90 to 98 percent less water,” True Garden founder Troy Albright says as he walks past rows of butter lettuce, basil and softball-size fennel bulbs grown in a vertical aeroponic environment that recirculates nutrient-filled water from a reservoir to seedlings above. In one month, his farm produces almost 7000kg of leafy greens.

“Even when it’s 46°C outside, we can still grow food,” Albright says.

Vertical farms have emerged as a potential solution for problems as diverse as food insecurity, changing climates and urban renewal. Their economic viability, however, is in question.

During the past five years, almost $4 billion of venture capital funding has poured into large energy-intensive and tech-dependent indoor vertical farms, yet many of these companies, such as the Jeff Bezos-backed Plenty, have declared bankruptcy. Only a handful of vertical farming companies remain operating in the US.

“We're now in vertical farming 2.0,” says Nona Yehia, co-founder of Vertical Harvest, the first hydroponic vertical greenhouse in the US, based in Jackson, Wyoming, with plans to open a new farm in Maine this year.